Features

Rob Taylor’s magnificently distressed 1948 BSA M33 is his winter bike. Retired garage owner Rob, a cheerful guy and a skilled mechanic, has several interesting classics, including a smart Silk 700 and a near-unique Silk 500cc racer. But the ohv 500cc M33 with its irreproachable patina is a standout. He acquired the BSA, complete with…

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  Although beaten to the honour of creating America’s first four-cylinder motorcycle by the Pierce Four introduced in 1909, when Scottish-born brothers William G and Thomas W Henderson founded the Henderson Motorcycle Co. in Detroit, Michigan in 1911, their aim was to manufacture a luxurious, reliable four-cylinder machine that was substantially better than anything else…

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  It is a fact of life motorcycles deteriorate when stored, it doesn’t matter how good the storage facility is, the environment will have an effect on the various surfaces. Aluminium will dull, paintwork likewise, tyres deflate, grips perish and so on. If you don’t believe me, just ask any museum curator, from the National…

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Nestling by the river which gives the town its name, Bradford-on-Avon is perhaps not the kind of place you would expect to find a motorcycle factory, but it was here in the 1960s one of the UK’s best but now largely forgotten twins, the Royal Enfield Interceptor, was manufactured. Our test bike is a Mark…

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BSA came out fighting as the war ended in 1945, announcing in August a thoroughly modern 350cc ohv single. The B31 derived from the former wartime prototype WD B30, but from the start it wore Small Heath’s new telescopic forks, designed by Val Page and BSA’s Herbert Perkins, to be produced on redundant gun-making machinery.…

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Positively luxurious, the 1909 Pierce was the first four-cylinder motorcycle manufactured in the USA for customer sale. With its massive tubular steel frame, it also stood out for the smoothness of its four-cylinder engine, leading to it being dubbed the ‘Vibrationless Motorcycle’. As a Pierce advert declared: “Pierce motorcycles are not made to compete in…

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Hampshireman Jim Devereux is well known both as an arch-Ariel enthusiast and for his immaculate restorations, several of which – including his ultra-rare four-valve Sloper (TCM February 2014) – have appeared in these pages. Jim’s latest Ariel was bought ready-restored though, and with the logic understood by all enthusiasts, he explains that: “Its restorer lives…

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Triumph’s duplex-framed 650cc range is the pinnacle of pre-unit development and the Bonnie is right at the top. Words: Tim Britton Photographs: Gary Chapman So there you are, outside washing the bike off after a run out and a passer-by stops, admires the machine and says: “I’ve got an old bike like that…” It’s a…

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Most of us can remember approximately when we bought a particular motorbike, although the memory tends to become vague after a while, and can be totally lost as the years roll on. But you might well be surprised to hear Ian Thorogood confidently say: “Oh yes, I bought it at 2.30pm on Saturday May 24,…

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